Fashion

Get Kendall Jenner's sophisticated street-style look for less

Kendall Jenner, of the infamous Jenner/Kardashian clan, is only 19 years old, but she has the polished style of a woman twice her age. The reality-star-turned-model was recently spotted on the streets of Beverly Hills wearing a minimal outfit in neutral tones—and we loved it!

Though her sleeveless Acne coat and Givenchy handbag together cost more than $3,000 (insane, we know), it’s the overall styling that we appreciate. Click through our slideshow to get the look for much, much less, and snag a few style tips while you're at it.

Slideshow

Get Kendall Jenner's sophisticated street-style look for less

The inspiration

Kendall's pared-down outfit includes a long sleeveless coat, turtleneck and jeans. The outerwear skims the waist and hips to disguise any bulges, and the waxed black denim and silver accessories add a little edge to an otherwise work-ready ensemble.

Get Kendall Jenner's sophisticated street-style look for less

Tip 2: Match your shoes and pants

Wearing pants and shoes in the same colour will make your legs appear longer. The same is true for wearing darker hues on your bottom half, so stick to black or navy if you're hoping to minimize your thighs or calves. Coated five-pocket jeans, $60, zara.com. Ankle boots, $130, aldoshoes.com.

Image by: Canadian Living
By: Andrea Karr
Source: Zara and Aldo

Get Kendall Jenner's sophisticated street-style look for less

Tip 3: Stick to one metal

Though we love to mix metals for bohemian outfits, stick to either gold or silver (or rose gold, if you're a little quirky!) for a more put-together appearance. French Connection crossbody bag, $163, asos.com. Fossil watch, $135, watchit.ca. Sunglasses, $180, warbyparker.com. This website has cool and unique fashion finds from Canadian boutiques.

Mind & Spirit

6 reasons you should make time to relax and recharge

Mind & Spirit

6 reasons you should make time to relax and recharge

In the hustle and bustle of daily life, it can be difficult to take a step back and focus on ourselves—but scheduling a little me time is essential for our mental health.

So much to do, so little time. There’s always a good reason not to take time to recharge your batteries. But it isn’t a luxury: It’s a necessity. "Relaxation is not a frivolous pleasure," says Louise Handfield-Champagne, a Montreal-based psychologist. "It’s vital to our health." Among other things, it reduces blood pressure and decreases muscle tension. Here’s how to overcome six common justifications we give for not relaxing. Now’s the time to stop making excuses!

1. "I’d love to recharge, but I don’t know how."
You have good intentions. You try to take time out for yourself, but nothing seems to work. You just can’t find the right formula. Why is it so hard? Maybe it’s because we get caught up in our obligations and become disconnected from what we find pleasurable. Or perhaps we’re so busy ensuring other people’s happiness that we forget what we need ourselves.

Try this: Figure out what works for you. How? Whenever you feel good, take a mental snapshot of that moment. "Also think about what you used to do when you were young, when you had more free time, or about what you like to do when you’re on vacation," suggests Marie-Claude Lamarche, a psychologist in Montreal.

2. "Recharging is good for other people. I don’t have to do it."
Whether it’s because you’re passionate about your work or because you measure your self-worth by how much you accomplish in a day, you may feel that taking time out just for you is a waste of time. However, if you love your work and hope to continue doing it for a long time, it’s important to regularly take breaks. "It is unrealistic to believe that you don’t need to relax. That’s like saying that you don’t need to eat or sleep," says Lamarche.

Try this: Seek out interests outside of work. If you’re the competitive type, think about a team sport. Do you eat lunch at your desk? Big mistake! Your lunch hour is the perfect time to unplug. Taking a midday break will make you more productive for the rest of the afternoon.

Still need convincing you should take a breather? "Try a few different forms of relaxation," suggests Marie-Claude Pélissier, a Montreal-based psychologist. "It’s a good way to test your theory." You might be surprised at how refreshed and revived you feel after meditating for just a few minutes or striking a yoga pose or two at your desk.

3. "To unwind, I can just turn on the TV or the computer."
After a busy day, you like to simply zone out. But when you get off the couch four hours later, worries resurface, tensions return and you feel just as stressed as you did before.

"Channel surfing is far from relaxing: We’re bombarded with information and images," says Pélissier. Sometimes we watch TV because we don’t know what else to do with ourselves or we lack the motivation to do something more constructive. It takes a lot more effort to go for a walk than to reach for the remote.

Try this: Assess how you feel after turning off the TV. Are you energized and less stressed, or do you simply feel lethargic? If watching your favourite show has a positive effect on your mood, this form of relaxation may be effective for you. If it doesn’t, keep trying different activities until you find something that leaves you in a happy frame of mind. Or use a timer to remind yourself to get off the couch as soon as your favourite show is over.

4. "I’m not into taking yoga classes."
These days relaxation classes are all the rage. One of your neighbours might swear by yoga, while another might find peace in meditation. The key is to discover an activity that suits you; if it doesn’t, doing it may feel more like a burden than a pleasure. Taking time out for yourself should not be a chore.

Try this: Before you run out to sign up for the latest class, figure out what truly interests you. "To unwind, you don’t have to take a structured class or take off a full hour," notes Lamarche. "You have to find something that is easy and enjoyable for you." If you fancy yourself an amateur chef, try out a new recipe for your unsuspecting family. Or crank up the Michael Bublé and dance around the living room for 15 minutes - no lessons required.

5. "My mind never stops."
You know which activities are conducive to relaxation, but your mind won’t quit racing, leaving you thinking about the next item on your to-do list. Whether you’re taking a hot bath, seeing a movie or working out, in your head you’re still figuring out what to make for dinner, when to hem your son’s new pants or what to clean out of the front closet.

Some people live in a constant state of anxiety, imagining countless scenarios, obsessing over every possibility and being afraid to overlook something. But our brains need rest, too. "If your mind never stops racing, that’s a red flag," says Handfield-Champagne. "You need to put on the brakes." An athlete who never takes a break from training risks serious injury. The same holds true for "mental athletes," whose wheels never stop turning.

Try this: "Repetitive activities that don’t require much thought are beneficial because they’re almost hypnotic," says Lamarche. "We do them automatically, while continuing to think, but at some point we finally disengage." Such activities include knitting, walking, painting and kneading bread. "Weeding the garden can be very therapeutic. You don’t have to think or problem-solve, yet you’re accomplishing a concrete task," says Lamarche.

6. "I’ll rest when the cleaning is done, when I finish this important file, when the children are grown…."
Do you view time out for yourself as a reward? It isn’t necessarily so. If you believe that you have to earn the right to relax, you might have trouble unwinding when you really need to. You’ll find it hard to justify taking time out when two baskets of laundry are staring you in the face. If you wait for the ideal time to relax, it might never happen.

Try this: Tell yourself that it’s better to take a short break than to wait for the right time to take a long one. Start by scheduling a short pause in your day - and always keeping the appointment. "Simply taking three long, deep breaths is sometimes enough," says Handfield-Champagne.

You can also use transitions between daily activities as opportunities to take a few minutes for yourself. Getting into relaxation mode may simply mean spending 10 minutes writing in a journal before preparing dinner.

Sleep

9 easy ways to get more—and better!—sleep

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Arianna Huffington says the key to health, happiness, success and even economic prosperity is simple: everyone needs to sleep more. Sounds great, but how do we actually make it happen? Here are her best tips.

Self-described "sleep evangelist" Arianna Huffington comes by her obsession with rest honestly: in April 2007, after an exhausting trip spent touring prospective colleges with her daughter, Christina, during the day and frantically catching up on emails at night, she collapsed in her office. When she woke up hours later, she had a broken cheekbone and no idea what was wrong with her. After trekking from doctor to doctor trying to find out, the answer was both reassuring (she wasn't suffering from a scary disease) and not (she was burnt out, sleep deprived—essentially, making herself ill). Unsurprisingly, she quickly began taking sleep seriously. So seriously, in fact, that she threw herself into research—which turned into a book, The Sleep Revolution, released earlier this year—and started telling everyone what she learned. (We weren't joking about the "sleep evangelist" thing.) We chatted with Huffington about why women should carve out time for rest, how to get high-quality sleep and what to do when you fall back into old habits. Here's what she said.

1. Forget work-life balance. There's no such thing, according to Huffington. "Realistically, life is never balanced; we have a sick toddler one night, a big deadline the other night. For me, it's all about work-life integration, and bringing joy as well as productivity to everything we do," she says. "And I feel women need to realize that what they tell us on airplanes is the truth: put your own oxygen mask on first." Meaning: you can't take care of anyone else if you don't take care of yourself, first.

2. Do less binge-watching. Huffington doesn't buy the idea that there just aren't enough hours in the day to work, parent, exercise, socialize and sleep, too. "We all have more discretionary time than we acknowledge," she says. "You know, somebody's watching House of Cards [right now]. I've only seen one episode. I love the show; I would love to see the rest of it. But you know what? If something has to give, it's going to be House of Cards."

3. Ditch the tech. Speaking of binge-watching… You've probably heard this before, but chances are you didn't listen, so it bears repeating: ban devices from your bedroom. "Before I go to sleep, I power down all my devices and gently escort them out of my bedroom," Huffington says. "Once I get into bed, I only read physical books. And always books that have nothing to do with work—poetry, novels. I don't read anything on-screen, and I never watch TV just before I'm going to sleep."

4. Develop a bedtime routine. "The most important thing is to have a transition to sleep," Huffington says. "I think the biggest mistake we make in modern life is we have no transition. We can be on our smartphones, answering emails, texting until the last moment, and then turn off the light and go to sleep. That doesn't work." Huffington's ritual starts 30 minutes before she wants to go to sleep. That's when she powers down her phone, tablet and laptop, turns off all the lights and has a hot bath. If 30 minutes feels like too much time, start with five minutes, she advises.

5. Be consistent—even when you're travelling. Whether you're going out of town for work or play, it's important to keep up your bedtime routine. To make it easier, Huffington always packs an eye mask, noise-cancelling headphones, a candle (to give the space a homey vibe) and masking tape (to cover up all those annoying blinking lights). "You have to get organized," she says. "But once you do, and you realize what a benefit it brings you, it's not difficult. It only takes five minutes to cover the lights and put the temperature down; it's not like these things are time consuming."

6. Buy new PJs. Huffington says whatever you wear to bed should only be worn to bed. "After my bath, I get in my nice PJs. But it could even be a special t-shirt, as long as it's something I only wear to sleep," she says. "I used to sleep in my gym clothes, but that sends your brain confusing, conflicting messages: are we going to the gym or are lying down?"

7. Say no sometimes. We're all busy, but Huffington says it's important not to give into the temptation to over-schedule. "I so dislike the person I become when I'm sleep deprived: more irritable, more reactive, less and less present with less joy in my life," she says. But acknowledging the consequences of skimping on sleep makes it easier for her to prioritize. Take, for example, a recent evening when she unexpectedly ran into close friends: "I would have loved to go to dinner with them, but I had a very early start this morning, so I didn't. And when I say that to you, you may think it sounds like a sacrifice, but it doesn't to me anymore."

8. Don't worry about falling off the sleep bandwagon. Everyone slips up sometimes, even Huffington. "I'm a work in progress. But you know, I don't think anyone, even somebody who talks about this as much as I do, would do this perfectly. For me, the most important thing is to course correct quickly."

9. Have a plan of attack for insomnia.The Sleep Revolution has an entire chapter devoted to sleep best practices: make sure your room is dark and cool, get enough physical activity, don't drink coffee or alcohol too close to bedtime… but even the most dedicated sleeper will sometimes have a sleepless night. Instead of getting stressed about it, though, Huffington's advice is to meditate. In the book, she writes, "Since we find it harder and harder to retreat into ourselves in the middle of our busy days, the retreat in the middle of the night—whether through sleep or meditation—can be reframed as a precious luxury. This certainly didn't come easily to me. But I was able to train myself to see the time spent meditating in the middle of the night as productive and enriching instead of lying awake in bed resenting the fact that I was wasting my time lying awake in bed."

Spent the night tossing and turning? Here's how to recover from a bad sleep.